North to Iron Country

As Robert Pacquette interviews an old iron miner for his Social Study's history report, he is swept back into the life of Robert Friggens, a boy from Albany, New York, who travels to Michigan's Upper Peninsula in the mid 1800s, during this regions great iron mining period. The son of one of the first doctors in the area, Robert meets a variety of colorful characters including Michael Shane, a rough but likable ex-miner. Michael takes Robert with him by dogsled to Green Bay, Wisconsin, where they collect the mail for the Upper Peninsula mining settlement at Marquette. When Michael is injured during the trip, and his replacement never arrives, Robert must travel alone on the wilderness trail back to Marquette. To add to his trouble, he is pursued by a thief looking for the miner's gold payment. And who is that mysterious Native American? Is he a friend or an enemy? Panagopoulos has again created a novel of adventure, humor, and facts rich in historical detail that makes her a favorite of readers both young and old alike.

As Robert Pacquette interviews an old iron miner for his Social Study's history report, he is swept back into the life of Robert Friggens, a boy from Albany, New York, who travels to Michigan's Upper Peninsula in the mid 1800s, during this regions great iron mining period. The son of one of the first doctors in the area, Robert meets a variety of colorful characters including Michael Shane, a rough but likable ex-miner. Michael takes Robert with him by dogsled to Green Bay, Wisconsin, where they collect the mail for the Upper Peninsula mining settlement at Marquette. When Michael is injured during the trip, and his replacement never arrives, Robert must travel alone on the wilderness trail back to Marquette. To add to his trouble, he is pursued by a thief looking for the miner's gold payment. And who is that mysterious Native American? Is he a friend or an enemy? Panagopoulos has again created a novel of adventure, humor, and facts rich in historical detail that makes her a favorite of readers both young and old alike.

Award winning, Great Lakes author Janie Lynn Panagopoulos is a historian who shares her love of the subject with readers both young and the young-at-heart. Writing professionally for over 34 years, Janie’s passion lies in detailed historical research where she spends 3-8 years uncovering academic facts in libraries, museums, and archives worldwide, to help bring history alive for her readers. However, she doesn't stop with just the academic viewpoint; she actually dresses in period costumes of the era she is studying as she strives to experience what it might be like to live the life of those she is learning about. Whether it is drudging through the snow on snowshoes or following behind a dog sled, to studying with traditional Native Americans or participating in archaeological digs, she did it all. Her research model is to not just read about the past, but experience it both physically and emotionally, to help bring history alive in her writing. Here is but a sampling of Janie's Journeys: trekking along a military supply road in a wagon train, cooking over wood stoves or an open fire to experiment with historic recipes, cutting down trees, milking cows and learning the jobs of the lumberjacks, hiking ancient trails, canoeing thousands of miles along fur trade routes, and living on uninhabited islands with no modern comforts of home.